His negotiations with the company never went through, not sure why he doesn't want to be there. Waiting for him was what made it take so long for the final 16 to be announced.

One of them has been replaced, by the way. Karaev had an injury in training, and they put Ray Sefo in against Spong:

Quote:

When there were rumors of a big change happening in the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16, the immediate thought was that it could involve Badr Hari or Remy Bonjasky, the big names that were absent from the Final 16 this year. Earlier, Michael Schiavello broke the news that it would be Ray Sefo who will be stepping into the Final 16, but even that was ambiguous at best.

Now there are reports that Ruslan Karaev has dropped out of the Final 16, possibly due to injury, and that Ray Sefo vs. Tryone Spong will now go down. Schiavello on his Twitter confirmed this mere minutes ago.

@SugarRaySefo will replace Ruslan Karaev. So it will be my bro Sugar Ray vs Tyrone Spong in the Final 16! CANNOT WAIT!

Ray Sefo had been talking about one final run at the K-1 World Grand Prix, and his MMA career in Strikeforce seems to be at a bit of a standstill at the moment, so Sugar Ray making another run at the Grand Prix is exciting news indeed. The last time we saw Sefo in K-1 World Grand Prix action was in 2008 when he failed to qualify against Gokhan Saki. Sefo had stated that he just wanted one last shot at the K-1 World Grand Prix, and the 2000 WGP Runner-Up has his shot now.